Royals salvage series by beating Marlins 7-4

A good day all around, until the bottom of the 9th. But we survived! Exhales

The Royals were in desperate need of a win, and Janson Junk had not allowed a hit in the first 3 ¹⁄₃ innings pitched. Outside of Jonathan India being hit by an 0-2 fastball to lead off the game, the Royals had nothing.

But Bobby Witt Jr. lined his MLB leading 33rd double into the right center field gap, Vinnie Pasquantino sharply singled to right, setting up 1st and 3rd with one out. Maikel Garcia would hit a sacrifice fly to put the Royals up 1-0. Salvador Perez would hit a double so hard that it got stuck in the wall in left center. Two on, two out, a situation where the Royals have struggled all season. Jac Caglianone, who has struggled almost the entire time he’s been with the Royals smoked a first pitch, opposite field double to put the Royals up 3-0.

Off to the fifth, Freddy Fermin would reach and get to second base on a throwing error, leading off. Kyle Isbel laid down a great bunt single, and India would smash an opposite field 2 run double. Pasquantino would hit another sac fly, to put the Royals up 6-0.

Kris Bubic, making his first start after the break was really good. He threw 5 scoreless innings on just 68 pitches. With a big lead, Bubic way over his innings from last season, and his velocity slightly down, it was a good decision to take him out early. Over those 5 innings, Bubic gave up 3 hits, (two of those being infield singles), walked one and struck out two.

Steven Cruz, Taylor Clarke and Sam Long all threw scoreless innings. Salvador Perez launched a solo homer to start the 8th inning as well, to put the Royals up 7-0.

Andrew Hoffman, recently called back up as the move for the injured Michael Lorenzen, got the ninth inning. He would get a groundout, walk a batter and then get another groundout to have a runner on second and two outs. He would then walk another batter, the next batter would reach on India’s 12th error on the season, a play that would’ve ended the game. A bloop two run single and a laser beam 2 run double, and suddenly Carlos Estevez had to come into a 7-4 game.

An infield single, made things really hairy as the tying run was at the plate, and the man who walked off Estevez, Kyle Stowers (who grounded out to start the inning), was on deck. But Estevez would get a foulout to John Rave in left field to secure the 7-4 win.

Kris Bubic improves to 8-6 on the season, Estevez picked up his 26th save on the season, breaking a streak of 3 consecutive blown saves for him. The Royals improve to 48-52 on the season. They are 24-26 at home and on the road this season. They are off to Wrigley, to face the best team in baseball. Two night games, and an afternoon game on Wednesday. A huge series awaits the Royals starting at 7:05 p.m. CT tomorrow.